Eastern Market style shed coming to Mount Clemens

Restaurant owner Paul Boone joins Mount Clemens Mayor Barb Dempsey, and Michelle Weiss and Steve Saph Jr. of the Downtown Development Authority in showing off plans for a Farmers Market shed to be located in a municipal parking lot on Macomb Place.
MITCH HOTTS -- THE MACOMB DAILY

An artist’s sketch of the shed, which is expected to open in the spring of 2018.
IMAGE -- MOUNT CLEMENS DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

The Mount Clemens Farmers Market is returning to the city’s downtown area with its own shed, similar to the ones used for Detroit’s Eastern Market.

Plans call for a 14,000-square-foot shed to be built this fall in the Roskopp Parking Lot near Macomb Place and Pine Street. It is expected to be ready by the spring of 2018, in time for the city’s bicentennial celebration, according to city officials.

Adding a shed comes at the right time, city leaders say, with the rise of the farm-to-table movement.

“The city has not done a major project for as long as I’ve been on the City Commission, which is 27 years,” Mayor Barb Dempsey said. “This will be the first permanent enclosed structure for the Farmers Market that we’ve ever had.”

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In addition to providing a home and expanded season for the Farmers Market, the shed is expected to showcase other functions, including ArtParty, cooking demonstrations, exhibits and entertainment. It will have restrooms, utilities and an office.

The Mount Clemens City Commission recently approved a request for proposals from developers. Members of the Downtown Development Authority have also been meeting with the engineering firm of Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick to review project details.

Downtown boosters have strived for additional ways to make a “walkable” downtown, with more neighborhood foot traffic to support the area’s shops, restaurants and service providers. They say the shed could serve as an attraction.

Steve Saph Jr., chairman of the DDA, said a 2007 Rapid Market Assessment study conducted by Michigan State University showed 3,200 shoppers on Saturdays, generating annual gross vendor sales of $500,000. “This is not a build-it-and-they-will-come scenario, this is taking advantage of a known quantity,” Saph said. “The Farmers Market has been pushed out of the downtown for one reason or another. It’s time to bring them back, along with other consumers, to the downtown.”

The shed will have a central concourse or aisle way that will traverse its center with trucks or booths set up on either side. There is room for about 40 vendor trucks. Booth space and the concourse will be covered.

The exact cost is not yet known, but preliminary estimates are about $1 million.

Farmers began offering their produce -- flowers, onions, broccoli, herbs, tomatoes and more -- for sale in the late 1970s in the Roskopp lot before moving to an area on Main and Market streets as an outgrowth of the former Farm City Week. The open-air market was relocated in 1999 to the Park-and-Ride lot on North River Road, where it has flourished.

It’s open from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the North River Road location starting in May, and 2-6 p.m. Wednesdays on Gratiot and Pine Street starting in July.

Now in their 38th year, farmers are gearing up for the season, which runs May 6 through Nov. 8.

“We are returning to where we started from,” said Pearl Romberg, a Sanilac County grower who heads the Farmers Market. “Having a permanent building will benefit not only the farmers, but it will also impact the customers. I think it will be very nice to have a shed. It definitely will extend our season.”

The flexibility of the shed will also serve as an economic tool for the downtown and coincides with other development steps for the county seat, said John Paul Rea, director of the Macomb County Planning & Economic Development Department.

Rea said both the city and county have been looking for ways to inject more energy and opportunity into the downtown district to generate additional foot traffic to enjoy free outdoor concerts, holiday events and other activities.

“I think this is a step in that direction,” he said. “Most important, we are dealing with a tried and true institution that attracts people in every week in the heart of downtown Mount Clemens. It’s a gathering space we don’t have now.”

Longtime business owners such as Paul Boone, who has investments in three restaurants in the city, agree. He plans to purchase fresh produce for use in the restaurants once the shed opens. But he expects other benefits as well.

“We were at Eastern Market and had to wait 45 minutes to get into Vivio’s (restaurant),” he said. “Do I think there will be a 45-minute wait to get into Orleans (Sports Cafe)? No, but when I open O’Halloran’s for breakfast, people coming to the Farmers Market can see my place and check it out.”